YOUR AIR AND WATER
The protections between your family and poison.
Sources: EPA Records · Federal Register · Bureau of Labor Statistics · Congressional Reports · Environmental Working Group · CDC Data
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.— Attributed to Chief Seattle — Suquamish and Duwamish Chief
The Clean Water Act. The Safe Drinking Water Act. The EPA's authority to set maximum contaminant levels. These laws and the regulations built on them are the reason your tap water doesn't contain lethal concentrations of arsenic, lead, mercury, or industrial chemicals. They are the reason wetlands filter your water before it reaches your well. They are the reason toxic waste ponds have liners.
In 14 months, the Trump administration rolled back, delayed, or killed protections across every one of these systems. PFAS drinking water standards that took decades to establish — rolled back. Clean Water Act jurisdiction over up to 60% of wetlands — stripped. Lead pipe replacement — delayed. Coal ash disposal rules — weakened. The protections are different, but the pattern is the same: the industries that pollute your water lobbied for these rollbacks, and they got them.
The Chemicals That
Never Go Away
PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are called 'forever chemicals' because they don't break down in the environment or the human body. They're in your water, your food packaging, your nonstick cookware, and your blood. The first-ever national standards to limit them took decades to establish. Trump rolled them back.
In April 2024, the Biden EPA finalized the first-ever national drinking water limits for PFAS compounds — setting maximum contaminant levels of 4 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS, the two most studied and dangerous forever chemicals. The EPA estimated the standards would prevent thousands of deaths from kidney and testicular cancer and reduce PFAS exposure for approximately 100 million Americans.
The standards had been in development for more than a decade. Scientists had known about the dangers of PFAS since the 1990s, when internal documents from 3M and DuPont revealed the companies had known their chemicals were toxic and suppressed the evidence. Communities near military bases — where firefighting foam containing PFAS had been used for decades — had been drinking contaminated water for years.
The Trump EPA rolled the standards back. The beneficiaries: 3M and Chemours (the DuPont spinoff), which face billions in potential liability for PFAS contamination; water utilities seeking to avoid $1.5 billion per year in compliance costs (despite federal funding being available); and the Department of Defense, one of the nation's largest PFAS contaminator.
• 4 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS
• 10 parts per trillion for three additional PFAS compounds
• Hazard index for PFAS mixtures
• Water systems required to monitor, notify, and treat
All of these were rescinded. There are now no federal limits on PFAS in drinking water.
• Kidney cancer and testicular cancer
• Thyroid disease
• Immune system suppression — reduced vaccine effectiveness
• Developmental effects in children
• Liver damage
• Increased cholesterol
PFAS has been found in the blood of 98% of Americans tested. It does not break down — it accumulates in your body over your lifetime.
• 3M — facing billions in PFAS liability; agreed to $10.3B settlement with water utilities
• Chemours/DuPont — spinoff created to shield DuPont from PFAS liability
• Department of Defense — contaminated military bases across the country with firefighting foam
Water utilities also avoid $1.5B/year in compliance costs — but federal funding was available to cover treatment.
"These standards would have prevented thousands of cancer deaths. They took decades to develop. They were the product of the best available science. And they were killed to protect the companies that created the problem.
— undefined
up to 60% of
America's Wetlands
Wetlands are not empty swampland. They are the planet's most efficient water filtration system, flood control infrastructure, and carbon sinks. They filter your drinking water, absorb storm surges, and recharge groundwater. The Trump administration stripped protections from nearly two-thirds of them.
Building on the Supreme Court's 2023 Sackett v. EPA decision, the Trump administration finalized rules stripping Clean Water Act protections from an estimated up to 60% of the nation's wetlands and millions of miles of streams. These waterways can now be filled, dredged, or polluted without federal permits.
The EPA's own science found that wetlands provide $23.2 billion per year in flood control services alone. They filter sediment, absorb nutrients, trap pollutants, and provide critical habitat for wildlife. Destroying them doesn't just harm the environment — it pushes flood damage onto downstream communities, often low-income neighborhoods and rural towns that can't afford the consequences.
• up to 60% of U.S. wetlands
• Millions of miles of streams
• Intermittent and ephemeral waterways
• Wetlands not directly connected to navigable waters
These can now be filled, paved, dredged, or polluted without any federal permit or review.
• $23.2 billion/year in flood control
• Natural water filtration for drinking supplies
• Groundwater recharge for wells and aquifers
• Carbon sequestration — wetlands store more carbon per acre than forests
• Critical wildlife habitat — 75% of U.S. commercial fish species depend on wetlands
Destroying them pushes costs onto downstream communities — through flooding, contamination, and lost fisheries.
• Real estate developers — build without environmental review
• Oil and gas companies — drill without wetland mitigation
• Mining companies — dump waste without permits
• Industrial agriculture — drain wetlands for farmland
Most states lack the funding or authority to regulate independently — only ~12 states have strong wetland protections.
9.2 Million
Lead Pipes
There is no safe level of lead exposure. Lead causes irreversible brain damage in children, reduces IQ, and is linked to behavioral problems, cardiovascular disease, and kidney damage. 9.2 million lead service lines remain in use across the United States — and the rule to replace them was delayed.
Biden's Lead and Copper Rule Improvements would have required water systems to replace all lead service lines within 10 years — the first mandate for full replacement in decades. The Trump EPA delayed implementation.
Lead pipes are concentrated in older cities and disproportionately affect Black and low-income communities. Studies show that majority-Black neighborhoods are 2-3 times more likely to have lead service lines. The crisis in Flint, Michigan — where lead-contaminated water poisoned an entire city — demonstrated the catastrophic consequences. And yet the lessons are being ignored.
Congress had already appropriated $15 billion specifically for lead pipe replacement through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The money exists. The rule exists. The science is unambiguous. The only thing missing is enforcement.
• Irreversible brain damage in children
• IQ reduction — even low levels cause measurable cognitive harm
• Behavioral problems in children
• Cardiovascular disease in adults
• Kidney damage
There is no safe level. The CDC, WHO, and AAP all agree: the only safe amount of lead in drinking water is zero.
• 9.2 million lead service lines remain in use
• Black neighborhoods are 2-3x more likely to have lead pipes
• Low-income communities least able to afford filters or bottled water
• Children under 6 are most vulnerable — developing brains are permanently damaged
• Older cities in the Midwest and Northeast are most affected
This is an environmental justice crisis — the burden falls on those least able to protect themselves.
"Every year of delay is another year of children drinking lead-contaminated water. Another year of irreversible brain damage. The science is not ambiguous. The money is there. The only thing missing is the will to act.
— undefined
1,000+ Toxic
Waste Ponds
Coal ash — the waste left over from burning coal — contains arsenic, mercury, lead, cadmium, and chromium. More than 1,000 disposal ponds exist across the country, many unlined, leaching toxins into the groundwater that communities depend on.
The Trump EPA weakened Obama-era rules that required utilities to monitor groundwater near ash ponds, close unlined ponds that were contaminating water, and meet structural integrity standards. The 2008 Kingston, Tennessee spill — which released 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash into the Emory River — demonstrated what happens when these rules fail. It was one of the largest industrial disasters in U.S. history.
Communities near coal ash sites are disproportionately low-income and communities of color. The EPA's own risk assessment found that living near unlined coal ash ponds increases cancer risk above acceptable levels. The rule changes benefit coal utilities like Duke Energy and the Southern Company, which face billions in cleanup costs.
• Groundwater monitoring near all ash disposal sites
• Closure of unlined ponds contaminating water
• Structural integrity standards to prevent catastrophic spills
• Regular inspections and reporting
Trump's EPA extended closure deadlines, weakened monitoring, and shifted enforcement to states that lack capacity.
• Arsenic — carcinogen, linked to skin, lung, and bladder cancer
• Mercury — neurotoxin, especially dangerous to developing brains
• Lead — no safe exposure level
• Cadmium — linked to kidney disease and osteoporosis
• Chromium — linked to lung cancer
• Selenium — toxic to aquatic life at low concentrations
When ponds are unlined, these toxins leach directly into drinking water aquifers.
These protections were not bureaucratic obstacles. They were the barrier between your family and poison. Every one of them was rolled back to benefit the companies that created the contamination.